WHILE the baseball steroid scandal is playing out across the front pages of newspapers, it so far hasn’t translated into much of a book bonanza.

Jose Canseco, an admitted early steroid user-turned-whistleblower, was meeting with publishers last week after the Mitchell Report was released in order to drum up interest in his latest book effort, which is entitled “Vindicated.”

The three-page book proposal was subtitled, “How Jose Canseco Took on the Billion Dollar Baseball Industry and Changed the Way the Game is Played,” and is a sequel to the February 2005 memoir “Juiced,” which helped blow the lid off of steroid use in baseball.

So far, however, there is no buyer for Canseco’s new book. “We have a couple of publishers talking to us, but we don’t have solid offers yet,” said Robert Saunooke, a Miramar, Fla.-based attorney who is representing Canseco.

Canseco gave “full cooperation” to the Mitchell Report, Saunooke said.

None of the clubhouse steroid suppliers who became major sources for Mitchell and are keen to tell their sides of the story are finding much interest from publishers, either.

Kirk Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse attendant who is at the center of the steroid-use scandal, was getting ready to pitch a book through literary agent Scott Waxman last week.

However, those meetings were abruptly canceled and no new sit-downs have been scheduled, said one publishing source.

Waxman said he could not comment on anything – or even confirm if he is representing Radomski.

Meanwhile, Brian McNamee, the former Yankees conditioning coach who claims to have injected steroids into seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens also hasn’t found a publisher.

Exits

With the acquisition of Tribune Co. by Chicago real-estate baron Sam Zell expected to close shortly, good reporters at the company’s Newsday subsidiary are heading for the exit in droves.

The biggest symbolic blow is the loss of decorated foreign correspondent Matt McAllester, who shared in a Pulitzer for Newday’s coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and has spent a decade overseas covering everything from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the train bombings in Madrid.

He began his Newsday career in 1994 as a summer intern and it’s the only place he’s ever worked.

In between ducking bombs and bullets, McAllester has written two books, one on Kosovo and one on his experiences in Iraq entitled “Blinded by the Sunlight: Surviving Abu Ghraib and Saddam’s Iraq.”

“Technically, I’m leaving because the foreign bureaus are all closing down,” McAllester told Media Ink from London yesterday.

After 10 years overseas, he said he was told that by year-end, he had to come home and take an assignment on Long Island.

Instead, he’s quitting to become a freelance contributor to Details and work on a book that he has under contract for Random House Inc.’s imprint Dial. He is believed to have snagged an advance of close to $200,000 earlier this year.

Also leaving is Tim McGinty, an investigative journalist who is headed to The Wall Street Journal; 19-year veteran Katie Thomas, who is joining the New York Times’ sports department; and Jim Rupert, a one-time deputy foreign editor who is now based in Islamabad, where he will remain in his new post with Bloomberg News.

Party

The former Time Inc. employees who are now part of Bonnier Corp. got something they never received from Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore: a holiday party.

“More than 250 braved the bad weather to attend,” said a company spokesman of the party last Thursday night at The Volstead on East 54th Street. “A good showing, good time for all.”

Time Inc., meanwhile and once again, did not hold a holiday bash.

Bonnier, a Stockholm-based media giant led by Jonas Bonnier, earlier this year acquired 18 Time Inc. titles, including Field & Stream, Yachting, Salt Water Sportsman and Skiing.

While insiders at Bonnier were no doubt happy to be able to party, there probably would have been a few more ho-ho-hos if Terry Snow, the CEO for the former Time Inc. titles, hadn’t only days before been given the old heave-ho to one of the most senior executives in the company.

John Young, the president of the Yachting, Salt Water Sportsman and Motor Boating group of magazines and one of the longest-serving employees in the company, was given his walking papers a week earlier. His duties were absorbed by Glenn Hughes, who was named Marine Group president.

As difficult as it is to be jilted at this time of year, Young might prove more fortunate than executives who could be axed next year by Bonnier.

Anyone from the old Time properties who is booted before the end of this year will have a severance package funded primarily by Time Inc.

After the new year, Severance packages will be determined by Snow, who has picked up the nickname “Terrible Terry” by insiders. keith.kelly@nypost.com